1. Art and Diseño

Volume I, Number 121
10th Waxing Day of Tabodwe 1376 ME
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
Ma-de oil port to create job opportunities for locals and
contribute to development of education and health sectors
to send crude oil to China
from the port, passing Rakhine State, Magway and
Mandalay Regions and
Shan State (North).
The vice president noted that the project was implemented with US$2.4532
billion capital investment
including US$1.204 billion
of the State. During a 30year project period, about
22 million tons of crude oil
will be shared to People’s
Republic of China and
local consumption.
Oil tankers of about
300,000-ton can moor at
the port where 12 oil tanks
have been built to store 22
million gallons of crude oil.
Moreover, the port has a
150 metres long work boat
wharf to accept 5000-ton
vessels, he said.
Environmental conservation plans have been
adopted for the port and
one fresh water dam and
water supply system have
been constructed for local
people, he added.
The vice president
said that the project will increase income of the State
and provide crude oil for
the nation. In addition, it
will create job opportunities for the local people and
contribute to development
of education and health
sectors of the island.
While implementing
the project, a total of US$
13.26 million have been
spent on school, dispensary, lake, electrification and
communication and other
infrastructures in four regions and states from 2021
to date. Chairman of China
National Petroleum Corporation-CNPC Mr Laio
Yongyuan spoke words of
thanks.
(See page 3)
Vice President U Nyan Tun delivers an address
at commissioning of Ma-de Crude Oil Unloading
Terminal and pre-commissioning of South-East
Asia crude oil pipeline.—mna
Yangon, 28 Jan—Made oil port in Rakhine State,
jointly built by Ministry
of Energy and South East
Asia Pipeline, will accept
unloading of crude oil from
Middle East by tankers,
Patron of National Energy
Management Committee
Vice President U Nyan Tun
said at the commissioning of Ma-de Crude Oil
Unloading Terminal and
pre-commissioning
of
South-East Asia crude oil
pipeline at Inya Lake Hotel, here, on Wednesday
evening.
He said that construction of the oil port, a wharf,
12 oil tanks and project
buildings started in 2011
and were completed in early 2015.
He continued to say
that a crude oil pipeline, 32
inches in diameter and 771
kilometres long was laid
An aerial view of Ma-de Crude Oil Unloading Terminal in Kyaukpyu Township.—mna
Three developers to compete for Yangon Railway
Station Complex Project
Yangon, 28 Jan —
Three developers have submitted proposal documents
to Myanma Railways to
compete for the Yangon
Central Railway Station
comprehensive development project, according
to an announcement by
the Ministry of Rail
Transportation.
Out of nine domestic and foreign companies
selected for the project
in October, 2014, three
companies submitted their
proposal documents to the
ministry before the closing
date for tender submission
on 6 January.
The ministry has not
disclosed the names of the
three companies that will
compete for the project.
The nine developers
were selected from the 28
shortlisted companies that
sent Expressions of Interest
(EOI) for the project.
Those
included
Artist’s Impression of the Yangon Railways Station Yard.
Shwetaung and Shwethanlwin companies from Myanmar, one Japan-Myanmar joint venture company,
one Vietnam-China-Myanmar company, one Myanmar-Singapore company
and companies from Singapore, Japan, China, Canada, Taiwan and Myanmar,
according to the announcement of Myanma Railways
last October.
Investment in the Yangon Central Railway Station area comprehensive
development project will
reach $2-2.5 billion, according to Deputy Minister
for Rail Transportation U
Myint Thein.
Myanma Railways invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) in April for the
project that is to be implemented over more than 62
acres of Myanma Railways
land and urged local and international or joint venture
developers/investors
to
(See page 2)
Bankers, telcos, solution
providers and technology
vendors gather at Mobile
Money + E-Commerce Summit
2015 to tap into opportunities in
new financial services
By Ye Myint
Yangon, 28 Jan —
Mobile network operators
and service providers, experts, mobile financial services technology enablers
and equipment vendors on
Wednesday came together at the 6th Annual Asia/
Myanmar Mobile Money
+ E-Commerce Summit
2015 to tap into opportunities in new financial services market in Myanmar.
This year’s summit,
with a special focus on
enabling participants to
maximize their networking opportunities in Myanmar’s mobile financial services market, is set for two
days at Parkroyal Hotel
in Yangon. Already in its
sixth year with successful
runs in Asian and African
countries, this summit is
the second for Myanmar
after the 5th Annual Mobile
Payments & E-Commerce
Emerging
Markets/Asia
Pacific 2014 Summit.
Featuring insightful
topics and discussions by
exceptional speakers and
specialists, the first day of
the summit focused on experiences and tapping new
opportunities in the mobile
payment and e-commerce
business, which is about
to boom in Myanmar that
has now become one of the
most sought-after countries among newly emerging economies.
(See page 9)
2
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
Parliament
Union ministers highlights budgets for
projects in 2014-15 and 2015-16 FY
Nay Pyi Taw, 28 Jan
—The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
continued for the seventh
day, here, on Wednesday.
With regard to Japanese Yen 24.678 billion
loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency-JICA, Union Minister
for Electric Power U Khin
Maung Soe explained that
the ministry will borrow
Yen 24.678 billion from
JICA for construction of
two 500KV power stations
in Meiktila and Toungoo
with 0.01 percent interest
per year. The loan must be
paid back in 40 years. The
power station project will
supply more electricity to
the nation and contribute to
economic development of
the State. It will be a part of
electricity network in ASEAN and Greater Mekong
Subregion.
The speaker invited
MPs to enlist for discussion
of loans.
Regarding the projects
in the 2015-2016 national
planning bill and the 2015
union budget bill, Union
Minister for Information
U Ye Htut explained the
budget proposal for changing analogue to digital system and extension of new
TV channels of Myanma
Radio and Television, responsibility of Information and Public Relations
Department for public
relations and supervising
laws and rules related to
the Ministry of Information, promotion of Myan-
mar motion picture arena,
publishing of aesthetic and
general knowledge books
in Myanmar and English
languages, and process of
News and Periodical Enterprise to practise public
service media, reasons for
lower budget proposal and
profits of News and Periodicals Enterprise and
Printing and Publishing
Enterprise in 2013-14 and
2014-15 FY.
Union Minister for
Transport U Nyan Tun
Pyithu Hluttaw
Chairman of Union
Civil Services Board
U Kyaw Thu.—mna
Nay Pyi Taw, 28 Jan—
At the eighth day session
of Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower
House) on Wednesday, U
Khin Maung Shwe of Tamu
Constituency raised questions on maternity leave for
female workers under the
civil service law and rules
and whether there is a plan to
manage permission for maternity leave of woman staff
at Mintha Station Hospital in
Myothit, Tamu District.
Chairman of Union Civil Services Board U Kyaw
Thu replied that any woman
service personnel in service
can enjoy maternity leave
under rules 101 and 102 of
civil service law. The woman staff at the station hospital
needs to submit applications
with documents referring to
the civil service law to the
ministry concerned for enjoying the maternity leave
with full salary.
Daw Khin San Hlaing
of Pale Constituency asked
whether Myanmar Police
Force controls criminal activities in Yangon Region
or not. Deputy Minister for
Home Affairs Brig-Gen
prevalence of law and order
and control of criminal cases.
U Thein Swe of An
Constituency submitted a
proposal calling for drawing
a five-year plan to appoint
one midwife at appropriate villages so as to narrow
development gap between
rural and urban areas in
health care services. Deputy Minister for Health Dr
Win Myint said that a total
of 20 midwifery training
schools and 46 nursing and
midwifery training schools
are turning out midwives.
As of 2015-16 academic
year, the ministry will open
two midwifery schools and
two nursing schools. That is
why the ministry will assign
one midwife for two-three
villages in 2020 when over
23,600 midwives will be
turned out across the nation.
The Hluttaw approved the
proposal.—MNA
Three developers to compete . . .
(from page 1)
undertake design-and-build
work for the project after
one month.
The project will be implemented in accordance
with an international tender process and will ensure
transparency, according to
the deputy minister.
The project is expected to start in February or
March.
To implement the project, Myanma Railways is
working together with an international consulting firm
to decide whether the pro-
Aung reported on foreign
loans and assistance for
development of aviation
sector, the plans of the
ministry to cooperate with
private investors through
JV, BOT and PPP systems,
financial reports of departments under the ministry in
2015-16 FY, maintenance
of waterways, upgrading of
jetties and ports, monitoring of natural disasters and
airport projects.
Union Minister for
Culture U Aye Myint Kyu
explained implementation
of projects and financial
reports, budget proposal for
implementation of policy
and aims, budget affairs in
2014-15 and 2015-16 fiscal year and plans to spend
capital expenditure on projects.
Deputy Minister for
Environmental Conservation and Forestry U Aye
Myint Maung elaborated
on projects in 2015-16 FY,
budget and loan affairs, cooperation with international community to develop
forestry sector, plans for establishment of forest plantations, tasks for University
of Forestry and greening
the dry zones.—MNA
Amyotha Hluttaw
Women service personnel enjoy
maternity leave under rules and law
Kyaw Zan Myint replied that
police are discharging duty
of security and rule of law
in Yangon Region through a
1:1228 police to people ratio
as population of the region
reaches over 7.3 million.
Police in 44 townships
of the region led by the
commander of Yangon Region Police Force emphasize prevention of 10 major
criminal cases under the
law. Police prosecuted 146
murder cases of 155 and 32
robbery cases of 47 in 2011,
156 murders of 164 and 26
robbery cases of 30 in 2012,
121 murders of 130 and 25
robbery cases of 33 in 2013
and 172 murders of 186 and
35 robbery cases of 48 in
2014. Police also arrested all
suspects in five cases of mob
violence in 2013 and three
in 2014. If all people abide
by existing laws and cooperate in preventive measures
of crime, police can ensure
Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
ject should be a joint-venture or a BOD project.
Annually, around K4045 billion is paid in subsidy
to Myanma Railways by the
government.
The project is a business development of Myanma Railways and will
develop
rail-concerned
business according to international practices to be
able to reduce the annual
subsidy, according to the
ministry.
According to sources, the area where Yangon
Central Railway Station
Government helps tea farmers
and merchants: Deputy Minister
Deputy Minister for
Education Dr Zaw Min
Aung.—mna
Nay Pyi Taw, 28
Jan — The government
is helping tea farmers by
taking measures to export
tea to Japan and display
tea products at the ASEAN Food Show, Deputy
Minister for Commerce Dr
Pwint Hsan said in his response to a question at the
Amyotha Hluttaw session
on Wednesday.
area comprehensive development is located is not included in the restricted area
of high-rise buildings in
which the height of buildings is restricted to 470 metres above sea level.
So far, the Resettlement Action Plan and the
Conceptual Plan for the
project have already been
drawn, according to MR
sources.
In the first phase of
the project, staff families
of the MR living in quarters would be resettled
and the factories of MR in
the project area would be
relocated.—GNLM
In addition, the government formed a central
body of tea farmers, tea
producers and tea merchants, according to the
deputy minister.
The government has
established a tea market
and it is necessary for the
central body and the Association of Myanmar Fruit,
Flowers and Vegetables
Farmers, Manufacturers
and Exporters to cooperate
with local authorities for
the stability of the tea market while the government
offers necessary assistance, the deputy minister
said.
Another
question
raised at the session was
responded by Deputy Minister for Education Dr Zaw
Min Aung, who said that
transfers and promotion of
teachers in basic education
sector are being carried out
in a transparent manner by
announcing vacancies on
notice boards at township,
district and region/state education offices when application forms are invited for
transfers and promotions.
Afterwards, a representative discussed the
religion conversion bill
and the speaker decided to
discuss the bill at the next
session.
The speaker reported
to the Amyotha Hluttaw
on measures taken by the
government
concerning
the construction works that
fall short of building standards. —MNA
President’s economic
advisor holds talks
in Mandalay
Mandalay, 28 Jan —
President’ economic advisor Professor Dr Aung
Tun Thet held talks on the
importance of mutual trust
between public and private
sectors here Tuesday.
Dr Aung Tun Thet
said civil society groups
have taken a crucial role
in addition to public and
private sectors for the development of the country,
while harmony and balance
of the trio are important to
be able to set up a trust for
the people.
He added civil service
staff need to develop ‘ac-
countability and responsibility’ for the public out
of consideration without
neglecting the feeling of
people, noting that government employees must have
fair and honest mindset in
working for the welfares of
the public.
Mandalay region government ministers, parliamentarians of the region,
department officers, members of Women’s Affairs
Organization and Maternal
and Child Welfare Association, entrepreneurs and
media persons.
Tin Maung (Mandalay)
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
3
National
Ma-de oil port to . . .
(from page 1)
Vice President U Nyan
Tun, Union Minister U
Zeyar Aung, Chinese Ambassador Mr Yang Houlan
and the chairman of CNPC
launched the port and the
initial operations of oil
pipelines.
The CNPC chairman presented gifts to
the vice president. Later,
those present were served
with dinner.—MNA
UEC Chairman meets election sub-commissions,
political parties, departmental officials, CSOs
Gov’t takes step
to administrative
machinery reforms
Nay Pyi Taw, 28 Jan
— As part of efforts for
administrative machinery
reforms, the government
has allowed ministries to
check and hand over their
financial accounts, annual
auditing and foreign loans
till end of March.
In his address at a
coordination
meeting
on transition period for
reforms of the government’s administrative machinery in Nay Pyi Taw
Wednesday, Minister at
the President Office U Tin
Naing Thein said the government is planning to decrease the number of enterprises and departments
of ministries to 20 as part
of stepping up efforts for
the third-wave reforms as
the government is restricting and reengineering its
administrative machinery.
After checking financial, accounts, annual
audit and foreign loans
of the ministries, 136 universities, degree colleges and colleges would be
separated from respective
ministries and they would
be run with autonomy in
accordance with the National Education Law as
from next academic year,
he said.
The reason why the
departments and enterprises are dissolved or
restructured is that the
employees including from
the rank of a director-general to lowest-level staff
are to carry out their duties more effectively, he
added.
He also stressed the
need to restructure organizational set-ups of union
ministries’ institutions in
region and states so that
their duty and function
can represent the respective ministries and provide public services.
Union Minister U Tin
Naing Thein also called
for promoting monitoring
and evaluation skills for
management, planning and
financial management and
land management of government staff in districts
and townships.—MNA
A vessel docks at already-commissioned
Ma-de crude oil unloading terminal in
Kyaukpyu Township, Rakhine State. The
project of the terminal with oil tanks contributes
to development of health, social and economic
sectors of local people.
(News on page 1)—mna
Chairman of Union Election Commission U Tin Aye meets election sub-commissions at different levels,
CSOs and departmental officials in Lashio.—mna
Lashio, 28 Jan — An
announcement has been
released to hold the general elections at the end of
October or early November
this year, Chairman of Union Election Commission
U Tin Aye told a meeting
at the city hall in Lashio,
northern Shan State, on 27
January.
The chairman said that
compilation of voter lists is
being carried out as of November 2014 through four
steps. He added that the
commission will organize
voter training and voter education in the future to train
staff of election sub-commissions at different levels
and ministries concerned,
those of political parties,
members of civil society
organizations and media.
He stressed the need
for them to abide by rules
and work guidelines for
holding the transparent
election to be able to conduct check and balance
in works.
The leader of Shan
State (North) Election
Sub-commission and the
chairman of Lashio District
Sub-commission reported
on preparations for electoral process.
After replying to the
queries raised by attendees, the chairman of the
commission instructed officials to cooperate in electoral process among the
sub-commissions to have
achievement.
MNA
Government, Hluttaw representatives, students issue joint
declaration on amendment of national education law
Nay Pyi Taw, 28 Jan
— Representatives of the
government, the Hluttaw
and students of the Leading
Committee for Democracy
Education Movement met at
the Ministry of Education in
Nay Pyi Taw on Wednesday
morning and issued a joint
declaration.
According to the declaration, the participants
agreed to hold four party
talks among the government, the Hluttaw, students
and the National Network
for Education Reform on
1 February in Yangon, to
discuss the eleven demands
of the students and find out
solutions though dialogue,
to discuss positively to reach
agreements and continue to
find solutions for differences through negotiations and
to stop student protests on
the day the talks begin.
Present at the meet-
ing were Union Minister
at the President Office U
Aung Min, Deputy Minister U Thant Shin, Hluttaw
representatives and representatives of the Leading
Committee for Democracy
Education.
Students who spent last
UEC members meet members
of Open Myanmar Initiative
Nay Pyi Taw, 27 Jan
— Member of Union Election Commission U Myint
Naing received 13 members
of Open Myanmar Initiative and 27 trainees at the
commission office, here, on
Tuesday.
Commission members
U Win Kyi, U Nyunt Tin
and U Win Ko explained
basic voter list compilation,
Union Minister
U Aung Min and
students sign
agreement.—mna
night in Taungtha continued
their journey and proceeded
to Popa by car at mile post
423.—MNA
casting vote and voting in
advance, invitation to local
monitoring groups, voter
education, voting system,
election law, rules and political parties registration law.
It was also attended by
UEC members, the secretary and commission officials.—MNA
4
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
LOCAL NEWS
BEHS branch gets new building
in Myanaung Tsp
Myanaung, 28 Jan —
A ceremony to hand over a
school building to Ministry
of Education was held at Ba-
sic Education High School
Branch in Htanthonbin
Village-tract in Myanaung
Township, Ayeyawady Re-
gion, on 27 January. Township Administrator U Min
Min Tun, Township Education Officer U Win Myint
and Manager of European Commercial Ltd (EAC
Foundation) U Saw Aung
formally opened the new
school building.
The manager explained
the purpose of construction
for the school building.
Officials presented a
certificate of honour to the
company.
European
Commercial Ltd (EAC Foundation)
donated a 60 feet long, 20
feet wide and 12 feet high
school building.
The ceremony was
also attended by Ayeyawady Region Hluttaw
representative U Aung
Win Swe, the township
education officers and
local people.
Nay Win Zaw
(Myanaung)
Myanmar youth win over Germany’s third
division club on wide margin
First line-up players of Myanmar U-20 team seen in a group photo before
playing against German club in Turkey.
Yangon, 28 Jan —
Myanmar
U-20
team
played a tune-up match
with BAK (Berlin) FC in
the third division of Germany in Turkey on 27 January.
Myanmar youth team
thrashed the German team
with a 4-1 result.
Captain Nanda Kyaw
scored an opening goal
in 25th minute for Myanmar U-20 team through a
penalty kick.
Striker Than Paing
added one more goal for
the Myanmar team in
the 68th minute, followed
by third goal that came
from striker Aung Thu in
IPRD gives mobile library service
to rural people
Nay Pyi Taw, 28
Jan — Head of Zeyathiri Township Information
and Public Relations Department Daw Mya San
Yi and staff made a trip
to Sibingyi Village on 27
January for giving mobile
library service to the rural
people.
They lent various
subjects of books and publications to the local people for broadening their
knowledge scope.
The mobile library
allowed local people to
borrow over 200 books
for a week.
Soe Thu Aung
(Zeyar)
the 88th minute.
Myanmar
team
grasped one more great
chance of penalty kick in
the 91st minute. Midfielder
Nyein Chan Aung could
translate the chance into
the fourth winning goal for
Myanmar.
Myanmar U-20 lost
to Iran U-22 in a tune-up
match in Turkey on recent
day. In the match, Iran
routed Myanmar 3-1.
Maung Maung Soe of
Myanmar scored only one
goal into the net of Iran
through a header in the 83rd
minute.
At present, Myanmar
youth players are taking
training in Turkey as part
of preparations to take
par in the coming U-20
World Cup.
GNLM
Mohnyin
Mohnyin
Patheingyi
Mandalay
Meiktila
Nyaungshwe
Tatkon
Nay Pyi Taw
Myanaung
Yangon
Today’s
Myanmar
News sites
Farmer representatives
discuss uplift of living
standard of rural people
Mandalay, 28 Jan —
As part of efforts to beef
up the third wave reform
process of the nation, a
meeting on uplift of socioeconomic life of farmers was held at the hall
of Mandalay Education
College in Chanayethazan
Township, Mandalay, on
26 January.
Chief Minister of
Mandalay Region U Ye
Myint made a speech.
Farmer
representatives
from Mandalay, PyinOoLwin, Kyaukse, Meiktila,
Myingyan, NyaungU and
Yamethin districts partic-
ipated in discussions.
Deputy
Minister
for Livestock, Fisheries
and Rural Development
U Khin Maung Aye explained plans to sell agricultural machinery to
farmers through installment for uplift of their
living standard and Union
Minister for Agriculture
and Irrigation U Myint
Hlaing explained plans
to distribute quality paddy strains and agricultural techniques to local
farmers.
Maung Pyi Thu
(Mandalay)
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
5
Local News
Religious association honours winner
novices in religious examination
Village library extends building for
readers’ convenience
Mandalay, 28 Jan —
Mandalay Pariyatti Sasanahita Association offered
certificates to winners in
the 66th novice religious examination at its hall on 85th
street in Chanayethazan
Township on 27 January.
Officials of the association presented certificates
to 579 novices.
Abbot of Shwewahwin
monastery in Myataung
Taik Sayadaw Bhaddanta Sasanabhivamsa gave
words of advice.
Tin Maung
(Mandalay)
WRUD sinks tube-wells in Tatkon
Township to irrigate farmlands
Tatkon, 28 Jan —
Water Resources Utilization Department under the
Ministry of Agriculture
and Irrigation sank two
tube-wells in Shaukkon
Village-tract in Tatkon
Township in 2013-14 fiscal year.
The
department
planed to sink eight wells
in 2014-15 fiscal year. It
has so far sunk one tubewell each in the fields of
Daw Khin Myint, Daw
Thay, U Ni and U Myint
Aung in the village-tract.
Nay Pyi Taw Council
member U Myint Shwe
and Township Adminis-
trator U Kan Saw Hlaing
inspected sinking of tubewells in Tatkon Township
on 26 January.
The tube-well can
supply water to 30 acres
of farmland. The council member met local
people
at
Aungmye
Yankin Dhammayon in
Shaukkon Village and fulfilled
the requirements
of
education,
health, electricity, road and
bridge, job opportunities and
irrigation facilities for the local
people.
Tin Soe
Lwin (Township
IPRD)
Mandalay, 28 Jan —
Less yield of aster flowers gets good prices in the
flower market in Mandalay, according to the flower
wholesalers at Thiri Marlar
flower market on 26th street
in Aungmyethazan Township, Mandalay.
“I have been selling
flowers as my livelihood
for 20 years. This year,
bad weather caused decline to yield of flower but
flower growers get good
prices. From November to
March, growers send flowers to this market in the
morning, and we distribute
them to Madaya, Kyaukse,
Sagaing and Meiktila. As
retail sales, we sell flowers
to local vendors from 4 pm
to 9 pm daily in Mandalay. Vendors sell flowers at
Htonbutan market on 30th
street,” flower wholesaler
Daw Nyo Khaing told reporters.
“Thiri Marlar flower
is the largest flower market
in Mandalay, but vendors
are engaging in trading of
flowers at the flower market
near Sakkyathiha Pagoda,”
a vendor Ma Thet said. At
present, vendors sell K150
per small bundle of aster
flower, K350 per gladiola,
K500 per chrysanthemum,
K3,000 per carnation and
K10,000 per pehot flowers.
Most of the aster flowers are sent by Ywathit,Kalar, Hsintat and Baythaung
villages in Ngazun Township to Mandalay’s market.
Chinese companies export
its best species of flowers
to Mandalay’s market.
Min Htet Aung (Mandalay Sub-printing House)
Nay Pyi Taw, 28 Jan
— A library identified
“Meik Swe Kaung” was
commissioned into service
in Setkon Village, Pobbathiri Township, on 28
February 2012 with over
3,000 books and publications.
Thanks to the village
library committee, the librarian and townselders,
number of books rose to
over 10,000 as a knowledge bank of local people
from Setkon and its surrounding villages.
At present, the library officials could or-
ganize wellwishers to donate books and journals
monthly and weekly to the
library. Due to increasing number of books and
readers, the library needs
to extend its building for
convenient reading of local people.
Wellwisher U Kyi
Soe-Daw Yadana Win and
family of Pyinmana donated a 40 feet long and 30
feet wide building for the
library.
Deputy Director of
Nay Pyi Taw Information
and Public Relations Department Daw Thin Thin
Zin and Head of Township
IPRD Daw Theint Theint
Myo inspected progress of
construction tasks on 27
January.
The same day, a readers’ discussion was held at
the library between IPRD
officials and local readers.
Deputy Director Daw Thin
Thin Zin explained advantages of literature and an
important role of village
library and Daw Theint
Theint Myo of Pobbathiri
Township IPRD, purpose
of holding the readers’ discussion.
Shwe Kokko
Fire engulfs shed in Patheingyi Tsp
Patheingyi, 28 Jan —
A fire broke out at a shed
in the compound of U
Naing Zaw Oo (a) Ar Ti
near Aungchantha Pagoda
in NanUlwin Village in
Patheingyi Township, at
10.25 pm on 26 January.
Personnel of Township Fire Services Department and auxiliary fire brigade members put out the
fire within five minutes.
Patheingyi
Myoma
police station opened a file
of lawsuit over outbreak
of fire.—Maung Pyi Thu
(Mandalay)
Growers get good price on sales of aster flower
6
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
regional
Indonesian president rules out reprieve
for Australians on death row
Sydney, 28 Jan — Indonesian President Joko
Widodo has indicated two
Australians convicted of
drug offences will not receive a reprieve from execution, a refusal to pardon
that is likely to strain already fragile ties between
the two neighbours.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has personally asked for clemency
for the two members of the
so-called Bali Nine who
were arrested at Bali’s Denpasar airport in 2005 for
attempting to smuggle 8 kg
(18 lb) of heroin to Australia. But Widodo, who took
office in October, pledged
to continue Indonesia’s
hardline approach to drug
traffickers, which saw executions resume in 2013 after
a five-year gap.
“Imagine every day we
have 50 people die because
of narcotics, in one year
it’s 18,000 people because
of narcotics,” Widodo told
CNN. “We are not going to
compromise for drug dealers. No compromise, no
compromise.”
Abbott had said Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and
Andrew Chan, 31, were reformed characters who had
assisted others in prison as
he stressed Australia’s opposition to the death penalty. Widodo said the decision rested with the courts.
“They can ask for amnesty to the president but I
tell you there will be no amnesty for drug dealers,” he
said. He was asked: “So no
relief for the Australians?”
He responded by shaking
his head.
It was not immediately
clear when the executions
Australian Andrew Chan (R) and Myuran Sukumaran
(L) are escorted by police as they arrive for their appeal
hearing in Denpasar District Court in Indonesia’s
resort island of Bali on 21 Sept, 2010. —Reuters
might take place.
Indonesia’s resumption of the death penalty has
drawn criticism from human rights activists both at
home and abroad. Australia’s Foreign Minister Julia
Bishop said last week she
would not rule out recalling
her country’s ambassador
should the executions be
carried out. Brazil and the
Netherlands recalled their
ambassadors from Jakarta,
while Nigeria summoned
the Indonesian ambassador
in Abuja to protest against
the execution of their citizens earlier this month.
Reuters
Malaysia to release interim report on MH370 on 7 March
Kuala Lumpur, 28 Jan
— Malaysia’s Department
of Civil Aviation will release an interim report on
the investigation into the
missing Malaysia Airlines
Flight MH370 on 7 March,
a day before the one-year
anniversary of the disappearance, deputy transport
minister Aziz Kaprawi said
on Wednesday.
“It will have details
on the technical investigation,” Aziz told Reuters.
This is to abide by a
requirement from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for Malaysia to release an interim
report on the anniversary of
the incident, said Aziz.
The flight from Kuala
Lumpur to Beijing carrying
239 passengers and crew
went missing on 8 March.
The findings of an international investigation
team set up in April 2014
will also be included in the
report. The international
team consists of the US
National Transport Safety Board, Britain’s Air
Accidents Investigations
Branch, China’s Aircraft
Accident Investigation Department, France’s Land
Transport Accident Investigation Bureau, the Australia Transport Safety Bureau, aircraft manufacturer
Boeing and British satellite
communications company
Inmarsat.
The airline’s crisis worsened on 17 July
when another jet, Flight
MH17, was shot down over
Ukraine, killing all 298
people on board.
Rounding out a bad
year for Southeast Asian
carriers, an AirAsia flight
from Indonesia’s second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore crashed
in December, killing all
162 people on board.
Reuters
Southeast Asia grouping
again ponders
common time zone
Kota Kinabalu, (Malaysia), 28 Jan — Foreign
ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations have revisited a
proposal for a common
time zone among the
group’s 10 member countries in order to boost
business linkages, Malaysian Foreign Minister
Anifah Aman said here on
Wednesday.
“With ASEAN forming an integrated and cohesive community by the end
of this year, we believe
that a common time zone
for ASEAN capitals is an
idea worth considering,”
Anifah said at a Press conference at the end of the
ASEAN foreign ministers’
two-day retreat in Kota
Kinabalu, the capital of
Malaysia’s Sabah state in
Borneo island.
The retreat set the
pace for a series of meetings that Malaysia will
host as this year’s chair of
ASEAN.
Anifah said the proposal for a common time
zone was first mooted as
early as 1995 and then in
2004.
In his press statement,
he listed several benefits
of a common time zone,
including
enhancement
of business and banking
linkages and airline operations.
There are currently
four time zones among the
group’s 10 member countries — Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam. Malaysia,
Singapore, the Philippines
and Brunei are on GMT
+8.00 hours while Thailand and the other Indochina countries are on GMT
+7.00 hours. Myanmar is
on GMT +6.50 hours. Indonesia, an archipelago with
thousands of islands, covers three time zones from
GMT +7.00 hours to +9.00
hours.—Kyodo News
Thailand warns US to mind its own business over politics
Bangkok, 28 Jan —
Thailand warned the United States against meddling
in its political affairs on
Wednesday, saying many
Thais had been hurt by the
remarks of a visiting US
envoy who took a swipe at
the ruling military junta’s
undemocratic practices.
Thailand, a long-time
US ally, remains under
martial law following a
coup last May, and the junta says a general election is
at least a year away.
Relations between the
two sides have deteriorated sharply since the coup,
with Washington freezing
aid and cancelling some security engagements.
In an address to students at a Bangkok university on Monday, Assistant
US Secretary of State for
East Asia and the Pacific
Daniel Russel called for
more inclusive politics and
the end of martial law.
Thai deputy foreign minister Don Pramudwinai
The comments from
Russel, the highest-level
US official to visit Thailand since the coup, came
a few days after ousted
Prime Minister Yingluck
Shinawatra was banned
from politics for five years
and indicted on criminal
charges over a state rice
buying scheme.
“We don’t agree with
the Assistant Secretary of
State talking about politics
at Chulalongkorn University. It hurt many Thais,”
Thai deputy foreign minister Don Pramudwinai told
reporters after summoning
the US charge d’affaires,
Patrick Murphy.
“If we comply with
(Washington’s wish) and
lift martial law and it leads
to problems, how will those
people who are asking for
the lifting of martial law
take responsibility?” he
said. “In reality, Thais
don’t even know there is
martial law.”
Russel had said while
Washington did not take
sides in Thai politics, it
was for the Thai people to
determine the legitimacy
of the political and legal
processes. He expressed
concerns that the political
process did not seem to
represent all elements in
Thai society.
Russel met with representatives of the military government, but did
not meet Prime Minister
Prayuth Chan-ocha, who
took power after leading
the coup.
Prayuth said he hoped
that the latest flare-up
would not affect bilateral
trade, adding that economic ties were continuing as
normal.
“It saddens me that the
United States does not understand the reason why I
had to intervene and does
not understand the way we
work, even though we have
been close allies for years,”
Prayuth told reporters.
In the diplomatic titfor-tat, the Thai deputy foreign minister said Washington did not understand
the complexities of the local political scene.
“The US does not understand Thai politics,”
Don said. “Yingluck’s impeachment was not a political matter.”
Washington
downgraded diplomatic ties after the coup, blocking $4.7
million of security-related
aid as well as suspending
high-level
engagements
and some military exercises and police training programmes.
Thailand’s
military
government has promised
reforms and an eventual
return to democratic rule,
but critics say the army has
stifled free speech.
Yingluck, the country’s first female premier,
was removed from office
for abuse of power last
May, days before the coup
which ended months of
political unrest. Nearly 30
people died in street protests.
The ban and the legal
case against here are the
latest twist in 10 years of
turbulent politics that have
pitted Yingluck and her
brother Thaksin, himself
a former prime minister,
against the royalist-military establishment that sees
the Shinawatras as a threat
and reviles their populist
policies.
Yingluck will face
criminal charges in the Supreme Court next month,
and if found guilty faces up
to 10 years in jail.
Reuters
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
7
world
China Voice: Judicial system
must regain people’s trust
Beijing, 28 Jan —
Clearing up the “bad influence” left by Zhou
Yongkang is necessary to
restoring the people’s trust
in the judicial system.
Zhou is only one of the
more than 60 high-ranking officials nailed since
November 2012. His case
is special because he once
led the nation’s judicial and
police authorities. He was
a member of the standing
committee of the political
bureau of the Communist
Party of China (CPC) central committee, in charge of
political and legal work.
Zhou failed to abide
by precisely those laws that
he was sworn to uphold.
His conduct damaged the
judicial system and shook
people’s faith in judicial
authorities, said Monday’s
Beijing Youth Daily.
Last week a statement
by the commission for political and legal affairs of
the CPC central committee said Zhou “severely
harmed the Party and the
country and led a number of
other officials astray”. The
statement went on to say
that the CPC must “wash
out the stain” left by a man
who blatantly traded power
for money and sex.
Zhou was expelled
from the CPC in December,
an investigation opened
and Zhou arrested. Zhou’s
arrest should be a deterrent to other officials, regardless of their rank, who
have abused, or who plan to
abuse, their power.
Zhou’s case lays bare
some of the many flaws that
still exist in China’s legal
system and was one of the
reasons behind the October
decision by the central committee to overhaul the judicial system. Eliminating
Zhou’s influence demands
a rule of law that prevents
law enforcers from break-
ing the law themselves.
This year, two circuit
courts of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) will begin handling cases against
the judiciary filed by the
public and local communities.
The Supreme People’s
Procuratorate (SPP) last
month guaranteed lawyers’ rights to meet suspects and read case files.
The new regulations prevent procurators attending
meetings between lawyers
and suspects, and forbids
them from monitoring the
meetings in any way. On
Tuesday, the SPP banned
prosecutors from a number
of practices which left room
for corruption.
Only a transparent and
clean judicial system can
clear up the mess Zhou left
behind, and as long as the
judiciary themselves obey
the law, another Zhou will
be prevented.—Xinhua
Embattled Australia PM Abbott vows to
consult more after Prince Philip furore
Tony Abbott, Prime Minister of
Australia.
Sydney, 28 Jan —Australian Prime
Minister Tony Abbott said on Wednesday
he would take criticism of his decision to
grant Britain’s Prince Philip a knighthood
“on the chin”, promising greater consultation as speculation about his future as leader mounted. Abbott, an avowed monarchist who was born in England, bestowed
Australia’s highest honour on Queen Elizabeth’s husband earlier this week, provoking widespread criticism, including some
from within his party.
“In the end this is my call and I’m happy to take these things on the chin,” Abbott
told reporters in Melbourne. “Obviously
there are some lessons in these things and
the lesson that I learn is that there does
need to be wider consultation about these
sorts of awards in the future.”
Australian-born media baron Rupert
Murdoch, a staunch supporter of Abbott
and his conservative Liberal-National government, waded into the furore, saying the
prime minister’s powerful chief of staff
should quit. “Abbott again. Tough to write,
but if he won’t replace top aide Peta Credlin
she must do her patriotic duty and resign,”
Murdoch said on his Twitter feed. “Forget
fairness. This change only way to recover
team work and achieve so much possible for
Australia. Leading involves cruel choices.”
Credlin has been a lightening rod for
much of the criticism of the Abbott leadership after a series of perceived missteps and
a souring economy that have seen his popularity plummet in recent months.
“Based on chats with Libs this AM, for
the 1st time (& I can’t believe I’m saying
this) I now don’t think PM can make it to
the next election,” Peter van Onselen, political commentator and contributing editor at
Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper said
on Twitter. Abbott’s surprise reintroduction
of knights and dames in the former British
colony’s honours system last year drew criticism that he was out of touch with national
sentiment. At the time he said they were intended to recognise “pre-eminent Australians”.— Reuters
US trade chief asks Congress to give Obama fast-track authority
Washington, 28 Jan
— US trade chief Michael
Froman called on Congress
on Tuesday to give President Barack Obama fasttrack authority to conclude
a contentious Pacific free
trade initiative early as the
negotiation has entered a
final stage.
“We look to Congress
to pass a bipartisan trade
promotion authority” so the
United States and 11 other
countries can conclude the
Trans-Pacific Partnership
deal within this year, Froman, US trade representative, told a congressional
hearing.
Speaking at the Senate’s Finance Committee, Froman said the TPA
“strengthens Congressional oversight by requiring
consultations and transparency throughout the negotiating process.”
At the beginning of
the session, a group of protestors in the hearing room
interrupted Froman’s testi-
mony shouting, “No TPP.”
The hearing session
took place as chief TPP
negotiators from the 12
countries, including Japan,
Australia and Canada, are
holding a series of consultation meetings in New
York planning to wrap
them up on Sunday.
The meeting of chief
TPP negotiators was the
first such since the launch
of the Republicans-controlled US parliament earlier this month. Republicans
are in general regarded as
being positive about free
trade initiatives.
The other TPP negotiating countries are Brunei,
Chile, Malaysia, Mexico,
New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The leaders of the 12
countries agreed in November that “the end of the
negotiation is now coming
into focus,” Froman said.
Obama made a similar call as Froman’s for the
fast-track authority in his
State of the Union address,
an annual policy speech, at
Congress last week.
Orrin Hatch, Republican chairman of the upper
house’s committee handling trade issues, was reportedly willing to submit
a bill to Congress for trade
promotion authority by the
end of this week and finish debates on the panel in
February.
Hatch will apparently
have to wait at least until
next month to commence
Four killed in military chopper
crash in southern Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City,
28 Jan — Four people
were killed after a military helicopter crashed in
Vietnam’s southern Ho
Chi Minh (HCM) City on
Wednesday, local online
VNExpress reported.
Lt Gen Vo Van Tuan,
deputy chief of staff of the
Vietnam People’s Army,
was quoted as saying that
news from Regiment 917,
Air Division 370 of the
the process in the face of
growing opposition by rival Democrats and more
work to fine-tune the envisioned TPA bill.
The negotiation aimed
at signing a TPP, which
would cover some 40 percent of the global economy,
has already entered a fifth
year due to lingering gaps
over thorny issues such as
market access, intellectual property and reforms of
state-owned enterprises.
Kyodo News
A citizen walks
in the snow in
Hefei, capital
of east China’s
Anhui Province
on 28 Jan, 2015.
The provincial
meteorological
authorities on
Wednesday
issued a blue
warning for
snowstorm in
some parts of
Anhui, including Hefei.
Xinhua
military Air Defence, reported that four people
aboard all died.
Tuan said the military
helicopter UH 1 departed
from Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City at 7:00
am local time on a training
mission, but eight minutes
later it lost contacts in Binh
Chanh district of HCM
City. Search and rescue
work was underway, he
added.—Xinhua
Cambodian PM’s participation in Davos forum paves way for new investments
Phnom Penh, 28 Jan —
Cambodian Prime Minister
Hun Sen’s participation in
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
last week provided a good
opportunity for the country to promote its potential
to new investors, a senior
government official said
on Wednesday.
Hun Sen, accompanied
by economy, commerce,
and investment ministers,
took part in the forum for
the first time last week and
returned to Cambodia on
Wednesday.
“At the forum, the
prime minister had under-
scored Cambodia’s investment potential and opportunities to business leaders
from across the globe in an
attempt to attract new investments to Cambodia,”
Kao Kim Hourn, minister
attached to Prime Minister
Hun Sen, told reporters at
Phnom Penh Internation-
al Airport. He said the forum was a good chance for
Cambodia to promote its
investment potential because some of the investors
at the forum had never been
to Cambodia.
“Many investors had
expressed their interest in
business opportunities in
Cambodia,” he said.
According to the official, Hun Sen’s participation in Davos forum had
also further strengthened
Cambodia’s diplomacy on
international arena.
More than 40 heads of
states and governments attended the four- day forum
featuring 280 sessions and
workshops. Besides, the
annual forum drew 2,500
participants from over
140 countries representing
businesses, governments,
international organizations,
academia, civil society and
the media.
Xinhua
8
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
opinion
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
Any problem, when
solved eagerly, can be
solved really
P
By Kyaw Thura
roblem solving is an unavoidable part of
human society and all organizations. This
makes it clear that solving problems is not
just limited to people at the top. Most adults are
under the illusion that they know better and do
better than young people. In reality, age has nothing to do with maturity. It is necessary for people
from all social strata to realize their roles as problem solvers and solution finders, since everybody
hurts as long as a problem remains unsolved.
Naturally, daunting challenges undermine
every confidence in our abilities to tackle difficult
situations. It is imperative to note that problems
can be difficult to solve when we only know the
issue and fail to work out the steps to fix it.
The most difficult step is trying to understand
the problem and figure out what it is really about
before making a real effort to solve it. We are under the impression that every problem should be
looked at broadly, which for sure will lead us to a
wrong conclusion. All we need to do is to take actionable steps to approach the problem and move
on to actually solve it.
Solving a difficult problem successfully will
give us a great satisfaction and a sense of
achievement. Making efforts to solve problems
as they arise is never enough. It takes effort,
compromise, sacrifice and eagerness to solve all
problems, no matter how hard they are. After
all, every problem can be solved in the sense
that they may not have correct answers, but
they do have best answers.
Write for us
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editorials, analyses or reports please email wallace.
[email protected] with your name and title.
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publish “Letter to the Editor” that do not exceed 500
words. Should you submit a text longer than 500
words please be aware that your letter will be edited.
Aplomb, Self-possession and Dogged determination act like
the propulsive power to success
By Tommy Pauk
W
E humans cannot
attain
success
easily in life.
Success of on individual
mainly depends on a person’s morale and attitude.
Success of the community
or a success of the society
depends on solidarity of the
people concerned. A successful person always attempts
with
aplomb,
self-possession and dogged
determination properly. A
successful person here
means a person who has
completely succeeded in education, politics, business,
innovation, invention, adventurous exploration and
medical science etc. These
are the human characteristics for struggling or striving to achieve something in
life. Unless a person has
aplomb, he or she cannot
succeed in some attempts or
reach personal goal. When
we have an ambition or
dream or aspiration, we are
obliged to strive hard by
ourselves. Don’t expect any
help or contribution from
others. We must culture
self-reliance and self-confidence or self-possession in
our minds firmly. Self-reliance is in the sense that we
must use our own effort to
fulfill our ambition or intention completely indeed.
Self-confidence is that we
must confide in our own
ability and skill to achieve
success strongly. So we
must show great aplomb in
dealing with the endeavor
for success. This morale
acts like a propulsive power
to gain success in life. It is a
common knowledge and
not a secret key to success
in life. If we always want to
depend on others and to expect assistance, our capability and efficiency will be
faded away. In other words,
we will become wally or oaf
or inept persons as we do
not make our own efforts.
The lazy bones and wally
will never succeed in life
due to their habit and behavior indeed. When we do not
have self-confidence, we
cannot overcome obstacles
and barriers in life. This is
the driving force or propulsive power to success indeed. We need to use this
power constantly and advertently. On the contrary,
as a human nature, we
sometimes feel downhearted and despondent when we
face or encounter great barriers in the life struggle. Frequently, we are inclined to
surrender or give up our
own attempts for gaining
some achievements or success. In this situation, we
ought to control our minds
to be stable in striving with
aplomb carefully. Psychologically, downheartedness
and despondence induce
man to fail in any attempt to
success or progress in life.
The
downhearted-nature
and
despondent–nature
cause miserable and desperate human life. However,
aplomb conduces man to
win over difficulties and
achieve success straight.
For example; the inventors,
the benefactors for great
and modern achievements
of human beings, had striven with aplomb to gain success in inventing airplane,
electricity, telephone etc.
The inventors had sacrificed
and dedicated their lives to
find or invent new things
which could contribute or
help humans enjoy convenient, easier and comfortable
life with sincere and genuine goodwill. As a proverbial saying goes; ‘Where there
is a will, there is a way’, we
should have thought before
using the right way and to
implement or materialize
the will. Even then, we must
have correct guideline and
timeline to strive or make
efforts with aplomb. Otherwise, our attempts will be in
vain. In other words,
aplomb can fulfill our strong
will and burning desire. If a
person wants to possess
prowess, he or she must attempt to attain it with great
aplomb.
Dogged-determination
is closely associated with
aplomb in characteristics. If
a person’s morale is made
up of dogged-determination
and aplomb, he or she could
achieve a successful life in
human society. Dogged determination motivates a person concerned to succeed in
attempting something in
life. A person, who strives
doggedly, becomes a successful man in any endeavor
in life. So, doggedness acts
like a propulsive power to
win the victory in life or
achieve success certainly.
First and foremost, each and
everyone has to determine
to carry out their plans. Afterwards, they carry out the
tasks with their capacity and
skill. However, they need to
do their tasks doggedly so
that they will certainly succeed in doing the tasks. We
should know that the hesitant –nature or wavering –
nature is the hindrance to
dogged-determination.
Therefore, we must get rid
of hesitant-nature from our
minds totally so as to culture dogged-determination
in life. The dogged-determination brings us victory or
success in life. This is indeed a high morale which
pushes us to step forward to
reach our aims or goals. In
here, self-possession is vitally important to gear up
the aims and objects to be
achieved.
When we have determination to do something
for our life, we normally
look for the most suitable
way to implement it or to
accomplish it or to execute
it. In this case, the firm determination is to be utilized
so that we can achieve success. We should not deviate
from our aim or goal or intention or vision. A man
without dogged determination is like a boat without
rudder or like a dullard.
Since he or she has neither
particular direction nor
dogged determination to
reach some goal, the aimless life leads him or her to a
sub-standard life. Some
world prominent figures or
people have attained great
success as they struggled
with dogged determination.
For example; General Aung
San of Myanmar, who
founded Myanmar Armed
forces and fought against
the British colonialists to regain Mynmar’s own independence heroically. His
dogged determination and
self-possession led him to
regain Myanmar’s own Independence from British
colonialists. His dogged determination aiming at regaining Myanmar’s own
independence was trusted
by the entire people of Myanmar. His noble morale,
spirit of patriotism, aplomb
motivated and unified the
entire people of Myanmar
to drive out the British colonialists from Myanmar’s
soil unitedly and unanimously.
Another example is
about the man’s attempt to
reach and land on the moon.
It was a heroic success in
space exploration. Unless
the space scientists and
space astronaut attempted
with self-confidence or
aplomb or dogged determination, man could not reach
moon. NASA’s program,
experiment, survey and
practical training for reaching and landing on the moon
were based on dogged determination with aplomb.
As a result, the man named
Neil Armstrong, an American astronaut, had walked
on the moon. Neil Armstrong became the first man
to walk on the moon and he
accomplished the feat on
July 20, 1969. He was also
convinced of the NASA’s
program with dogged determination, self-possession
and aplomb .This remarkable feat declared that man is
capable of using space technology to reach and land on
the moon with space-craft
among the celestial beings
in the solar system. This
breakthrough was significantly recorded in human
history. So, it is obvious to
learn that the dogged determination, self-possession
and aplomb act like the propulsive power to success.
Developing human civilizations and the technology of modern civilization
are created by human‘s
dogged determination and
strong will on earth. We humans aspire to the tasks for
the development of human
society so we decide to upgrade it firmly. Then we
make concerted efforts to
uplift the standard of humanity. Our dogged determination motivates us to
implement the aims ardently. Eventually we reach our
goals. It is an honorable
success indeed. The high
morale of technologists also
invent or innovate things for
modern civilization with
dogged determination in the
same way as human civilization development. It is
undeniable that the evolution of human civilization is
generated by aplomb,
self-possession and dogged
determination. These characteristics or distinguishing
qualities in human minds
(See page 9)
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Thursday, 29 January, 2015
9
national
Coordination focuses on
presentation of
President’s Excellent Award
Nay Pyi Taw, 28 Jan—
The President’s Excellent
Award scrutiny committee
held the second coordination meeting at the President Office Ministry, here,
on Wednesday.
Chairmen of the work
committee deputy ministers
Brig-Gen Kyaw Zan Myint,
U Thein Aung, Dr Win Myint and Dr Zaw Min Aung
discussed extension of
members at respective work
committees, designation of
awards, rules for point system and field trips for assessment.
Region and state ministers participated in discussions on competition of
Government, student protesters agree to
hold four-party talks
candidates from respective
regions and states and selection of winners in the
awards through video conferencing.
Chairman of the scrutiny committee Union Minister at the President Office U
Tin Naing Thein reviewed
discussions of participants.
They also focused on
releasing information, making medals, transport and
preparations for awarding
ceremony. Secretary of the
committee deputy minister
U Kyaw Kyaw Win urged
all to actively carry out the
tasks to have better result in
this year’s ceremony.
MNA
logues. We are now on
the path to talks, the union
minister added.
A little misunderstanding between the
government and students
caused the protests and
arrangements of the government and the Hluttaw
were explained to students
at the meeting, according
to the union minister.
U Min Ko Naing of
88 Generation Peace and
Open Society hailed the
agreement between the
government and the students, saying that it was
a good step forward and
both the government and
the students were required
to keep the promise.
DHSHD, KOICA agree establishment
Ko Zeyar Lwin of
of Yangon-Hanthawady-Bago
Yangon Institute of EcoUnion Minister U Aung Min replies to queries at media at the ceremony to nomics agreed that the
Corridor and Yangon Southwestern
issue four points agreement.—mna
meeting was important
Regional Development
and it was a rare meeting
Nay Pyi Taw, 28 Jan— Yangon Southwestern Rein the history of student
News Agency.
Nay Pyi Taw, 28 Wednesday.
The signing ceremony of gional Development in My- Jan— The government,
“When we promGovernment officials movement. He believed
the Record of Discussions anmar was held on 26 Jan- Hluttaw representatives ised to hold four-party and leaders of student that the four-party talks of
(ROD) between Korea In- uary at Office No 40, here.
and student represent- talks and set the time and protestors agreed to hold the strike committee, the
ternational
Cooperation
Director-General
U atives of Democracy venue, students agreed talks as demanded by stu- leading committee for deAgency (KOICA) and the Min Htein of the depart- Education
mocracy education moveMovement to suspend their pro- dent protestors.
Department of Human ment and Mr Nam Kwon met in Nya Pyi Taw on tests as their demand was
As the president has ment, the national network
Settlement and Housing Hyoung, Chief Resident Wednesday and issued a met,” Union Minister U often said, solution can for education reform and
Development, Ministry of Representative of KOICA four points agreement on Aung Min told Myanmar be reached through dia- the government will solve
Construction, on the Project Myanmar Office signed the
the national education law
for establishment of master ROD for further collaboracrisis.
plans for Yangon-Hantha- tion of urban and regional ogy vendors dealing with
Other demands of the
security of mobile banking
wady-Bago Corridor and planning.—MNA
students will be discussed
and payments for many
at the talks, he added.
Bankers, telcos, solution providers...
years.
The talks will beto send money online.
(from page 1)
In Myanmar, some dogin on 1 February and
“From my point of mestic banks, including CB
“It is not too soon for
the protests will also be
Myanmar’s telecom and view, late movers will be Bank and Inwa Bank, that
suspended as soon as the
banking communities to given the advantage of not have recently launched motalks begin, according to
embrace mobile banking sustaining the risks,” said U bile banking services and
Ko Nanda Sit Aung of
initiatives and e-commerce Than Sein of United Ama- telcos are about to race to
Student protester
All Burma Federation of
possibilities, U Khin Maung ra Bank Ltd, adding not to get a slice of the new marKo
Nanda
Sit
Aung.
Student Unions (Central
Nyo, an economist, told worry about security risks. ket. The financial services
Student protester
Working Committee).
The Global New Light of He highlighted advantages aiming to reach out to a
mna
Ko Zeyar Lwin.—mna
Honey Win (MNA)
Myanmar. But he stressed of choosing ones that are large unbanked population
prowess,
glory, feat, high
the importance of trust and proven to minimize security in rural areas are expected
morale
and
creative-mindsecurity paving the way to a concerns and being provid- to boom in the country.
edness
are
immeasurable
on
(from
page
8)
space
approaching
our
plansafe environment in which ed by international technolGNLM
are propulsive power to suc- et, but no one can show con- earth and man can even
cess in human existence and crete evidence or proof of travel in the space to discovin human society as well. their movement or appear- er biological activities and
Man must be aware that ance. Since we cannot de- water. What an awesome
man is the most superior tect the movement or ap- endeavor!
Don’t lose confidence
creature on earth and also pearance of the so-called
man is able to conquer the aliens or creatures from out- whenever you encounter the
other planets in the solar er space, we can infer that difficulties or obstacles on
system. We must exert or man is the most powerful your way to success!
Don’t hesitate and destrive for the betterment of living creature in the solar
humanity humanely . Cur- system undoubtedly. This viate when you have dogged
rently, we humans are the power is not rewarded by determination for the good
ones who can travel in the god but rewarded by hu- faith of mankind!
*****
space and can launch mans themselves. Man’s
manned spacecraft or un- Tommy Pauk is the pseudonym of U Thein Swe, who
manned spacecraft to land is B.A (English) and (Registered Law) R.L I. degrees
on the other planets in the holder. He has English Teaching experience at
Cynthia Liaw, head of virtual banking & payments of Maybank, shares
solar system. Absolutely, Yangon University English Department and
experience in mobile banking and mobile transfers at the 6th Annual
this is the tangible proof and Workers’ college in Yangon, and now is working as
Asia/Myanmar Mobile Money + E-Commerce Summit 2015 in Yangon on reality. It is said that there freelance writer and English Teacher cum Translator/
Wednesday.—Photo: Ye Myint
are creatures from outer Interpreter for foreign firms.
Aplomb, Self-possession and...
10
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
world
Spying program leaked by
Brazil’s Rousseff urges cabinet
Snowden is tied to campaign in
to back belt-tightening
Brazil’s President
Dilma Rousseff
Brasilia, 28 Jan —
Brazil’s President Dilma
Rousseff urged her cabinet
on Tuesday to embrace fiscal belt-tightening and other
measures aimed at restoring
business confidence and
growth in her second term.
Rousseff stressed the
need to rein in wasteful
spending and to do more
with less, a change of pol-
icy that investors want to
see but that has caused
frictions within the ruling
Workers’ Party.
“We need a fiscal rebalancing to recover economic growth as soon as
possible so we can bring
down inflation and interest
rates and, thus, guarantee
jobs and incomes,” she said
at her first cabinet meeting
since being sworn in on 1
January for a new term.
She vowed to preserve
social programmes that
have reduced poverty, but
said pension and unemployment benefits will have
to be trimmed.
Labour unions plan
protests on Wednesday
against the policy changes,
a first show of opposition
to the belt-tightening from
within the ranks of traditional allies of her Workers’ Party.
The leftist leader said
the adjustment will be
“gradual” and started with
budget cuts for all ministries. Steps will be taken to
cut red tape and encourage
investment by expanding
private concessions in infrastructure projects.
Taxes will be simplified to ease the burden on
companies and make them
more competitive to boost
exports, she said. Rousseff’s new finance minister,
hawkish banker Joaquim
Levy, has already raised
taxes on fuel, imports and
cosmetics to make up for
a widening fiscal shortfall
that has soured the mood of
investors.—Reuters
many countries
San Francisco, 28 Jan
— A program used by US
and British spies to record
computer keystrokes was
part of sophisticated hacking operations in more than
a dozen countries, security
experts said on Tuesday,
after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reportedly leaked the source
code for the program.
On Tuesday, researchers at security software
firm Kaspersky Lab said
that much of that code,
published this month by
German magazine Spiegel,
matched what they previously found in machines
infected by Regin, a major
suite of spying tools exposed in November.
Venezuelan president rejects crime accusation
against socialist leader
Caracas, 28 Jan — Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro on Tuesday rebuffed media reports that accused
his top party aide of drug trafficking, calling it a new
“maneuver” by the opposition.
In a TV broadcast, Maduro said the charge against
Diosdado Cabello, his top aide from the United Socialist
Party, is a new “campaign to discredit” the country’s most
important revolutionary leader just after the head of state.
“I want to take this opportunity to reject this new plan
against Diosdado Cabello. He has all my support,” said
the president.
Two Spanish-language newspapers reported on Tuesday that Cabello’s chief bodyguard, Leamsy Salazar, had
fled to the United States where he’s allegedly cooperating
with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
According to the reports, Salazar has documents that
indicate the implication of the socialist leader in crimes
as head of a drug cartel made up of political and military
officials.
“This a very vulgar campaign against Cabello,” behind which is the “imperial hand” of the US government,
said Maduro.
Meanwhile, Cabello responded on Twitter to the allegations. “Every attack against me strengthens my spirit and resolve,” he said, thanking people for support at a
time of “infamy and intrigue.”
Socialist legislators also rejected the accusation as a
“desperate action” by right-wing groups, although they
recognized that Salazar belonged to Cabello’s security
team.—Xinhua
Lead Kaspersky researcher Costin Raiu said
that the keylogging programme, called Qwerty,
would work only with
Regin, and that it appeared
several Western countries’
spies had been using Regin
over the course of a decade.
“Multiple
attacker
groups are using the Regin
platform, which is a new
conclusion for us,” Raiu
told Reuters.
Spiegel and other publications reported earlier
that Regin had been used in
the hacking of Belgian telecommunications provider
Belgacom, which slides
provided by Snowden said
was targeted to enable spying on mobile phones in
Europe.
Overall, the malicious
software has been discovered at more than two
dozen sites in 14 countries,
including Russia, India,
Germany and Brazil. Targets included government
agencies, financial institutions and multilateral bodies.
The NSA did not respond to a request for comment. After past Snowden
disclosures, it has avoided
discussing specific operations but said it complies
with US law, which allows
broad surveillance over-
Former US National
Security Agency
contractor Edward
Snowden
seas.
The new findings suggest that Regin was a platform for spying operations
that was shared among
the so-called Five Eyes—
the United States, United
Kingdom, Canada Australia, and New Zealand.
In its own November
report on Regin, top US antivirus company Symantec
Corp said it was extraordinarily well disguised,
and that even when traces
were found it was difficult
to know the purpose. Like
some other top-tier spying
programmes, Regin has
different modules that can
be installed to achieve different ends.
Symantec said it found
victims in the telecom industry as well as energy, airline and research
concerns.
Reuters
Greek PM Tsipras names antiausterity cabinet, port sale halted
Athens, 28 Jan —
Greek Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras named a
cabinet of anti-austerity
veterans and halted privatization of Greece’s
biggest port on Tuesday,
signaling he aims to stick
to election pledges despite warning shots from
the euro zone and financial markets.
Greek markets endured a second day of
turmoil, with bank shares
diving and investors fearing the anti-bailout government might be set on
a collision course with
the country’s European
Union and IMF creditors.
Promising to reverse
budget cuts and renegotiate Greece’s huge debts,
Tsipras’s leftist Syriza
party stormed to power
in Sunday’s snap election
on a wave of anger against
the German-backed austerity policies that have driven
up poverty and left one in
four Greek workers out of
a job.
Among a team spanning the radical and more
pragmatic wings of Syriza,
Tsipras named academic
economist Yanis Varoufakis as his finance minister. The defence portfolio
went to Panos Kammenos,
leader of the right-wing
Independent Greeks party
which is the junior partner
in the Tsipras coalition.
One of the first decisions announced by
the new government was
stopping the planned sale
of a 67 percent stake in
the Piraeus Port Authority
(OLPr.AT), agreed under
its international bailout
deal for which China’s Co-
sco Group COSCO.UL and
four other suitors had been
shortlisted.
“The Cosco deal will
be reviewed to the benefit of the Greek people,”
Thodoris Dritsas, the deputy minister in charge of
the shipping portfolio, told
Reuters.
Syriza had announced
before the election it would
halt the sale of state assets, a plank of the 240
billion-euro bailout agreement. Stakes in the port of
Thessaloniki (OLTr.AT),
the country’s second biggest, along with railway
operator Trainose and rolling stock operator ROSCO
are also slated to be sold.
In a separate step, the
deputy minister in charge
of administrative reform,
George Katrougkalos said
the government would re-
Greek President Karolos Papoulias (L) reads the political oath as newly appointed
ministers and deputy ministers take part in a swearing in ceremony at the
presidential palace in Athens on 27 Jan, 2015.—Reuters
verse some layoffs of public sector workers, rolling
back another key bailout
measure.
“It will be one of the
first pieces of legislation
that I will bring in as a minister,” he told Mega TV.
Varoufakis has railed
against the bailouts of
struggling euro zone states
as “fiscal waterboarding”.
But after being sworn in, he
said the government would
be constructive.
“We are about to begin
negotiating with our partners,” he told reporters.
“It is a great challenge,
but the challenge is how
to minimize social costs
that were unnecessary
throughout Europe,” he
said.—Reuters
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
11
world
Too soon to say ‘mission accomplished’ in Kobani — US official
Kurdish civilians gather in the Syrian Kurdish city of Qamishli as they wave Kurdish
flags in celebration after it was reported that Kurdish forces took control of the
Syrian town of Kobani on 27 Jan, 2015.—Reuters
Afghans arrest commander of group that
claimed killing Swedish journalist
Kabul, 28 Jan — Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency said on
Wednesday it had arrested
a commander of a militant
group known as the “Suicide Front”, that claimed
responsibility last year for
the execution-style killing
of a Swedish journalist.
Nils Horner, 51, who
worked for Swedish Radio and held dual British-Swedish nationality,
was shot dead in the capital’s diplomatic quarter
in last March. The killing
compounded fears of deteriorating security ahead
of the withdrawal of most
foreign troops.
The militant group had
separately claimed respon-
sibility for the killing of the
governor of the province of
Logar the previous year.
“The National Directorate of Security detained
a militant commander for
the terrorist group Mahaz-e-Fedaiyan ... with two
pistols, two time bombs
and a silencer,” said Hassib Sediqi, a spokesman
for the agency, referring to
the group.
The militants, who
described themselves as a
Taleban splinter faction,
said the radio journalist
was a spy for Britain’s intelligence agency.
Britain’s mission in
Afghanistan said it did not
comment on such allegations. At the time, a West-
ern diplomat dismissed the
militants’ accusation as
“complete nonsense”.
The Taleban denied
any link to the militants
who claimed Hormer’s
killing. The Swedish mission in Afghanistan said
details of the arrest had
been passed onto investigators in Sweden, but that
it was too early to reach
any conclusions. “The investigation in Sweden is
still ongoing,” said deputy mission chief Anders
Skiöldebrand, adding that
Swedish
investigators
working closely with the
Afghan spy agency had
been to Afghanistan last
year and could return.
Reuters
Frenchman, American among those
killed in Tripoli hotel attack
Tripoli, 28 Jan — A
Frenchman and an American national were among
the foreign victims killed
when gunmen stormed a
Tripoli hotel on Tuesday,
a Libyan security official
said.
Tripoli
security
spokesman Essam Naas
said the Frenchman had
been identified by his employee identification badge.
He did not give further details, but said the other foreigners were Asian without
giving any nationality.
The attack on the luxu-
ry Corinthia Hotel was still
under investigation and
details remain unclear. But
Libyan officials said two
gunmen set off a car bomb
before storming the hotel,
killing four foreigners, a
security officer and three
guards.—Reuters
Security forces surround Corinthia hotel after a car bomb in Tripoli
on 27 Jan, 2015. —Reuters
Washington, 28 Jan
— Kurdish fighters’ expulsion of Islamic State forces from the Syrian town
of Kobani helped stop the
momentum of the Islamist
group but is not a significant turning point in the
overall campaign, a senior
State Department official
said on Tuesday.
The setback for Islamic State in the war-ravaged
town near the Turkish border did not mean “anyone
is declaring mission accomplished” in the international campaign against the
group, that has taken over
parts of Syria and Iraq, the
official said.
US air strikes in liaison with Kurdish ground
troops and Iraqi Kurd rein-
forcements allowed in from
Turkey tipped the battle the
Kurds’ way, and the Islamic State’s appetite for the
fight had been undermined
by heavy death tolls.
“About 90 percent of
the town has been retaken and ISIL, whether on
order or the fact that they
are just breaking ranks,
are withdrawing from the
town,” the official told
reporters, employing a
frequently used acronym
for the al-Qaeda offshoot.
“The entire notion of this
organization that is on the
march and the inevitable
expansion and inevitable
momentum has been halted
at Kobani,” added the official, speaking on condition
of anonymity.
“The number of foreign fighters killed in
Kobani is hugely significant,” the official said,
adding it was “in the four
figures.” The militants had
launched an assault on
Kobani in September using heavy weapons seized
in Iraq and forcing tens of
thousands of people over
the border into Turkey.
The official said some
of Islamic State’s best foreign fighters from Chechnya, Canada, Australia and
Belgium made up the majority of militants fighting
for the city, which became
a focal point in the campaign in northern Syria.
By November they
were struggling to hold the
town.—Reuters
Japan strives for Jordan’s help as
deadline for hostage release nears
Tokyo, 28 Jan — Japan stepped up its calls on
Wednesday for Jordanian
support in seeking the release of a Japanese freelance journalist thought to
be held captive by Islamic
State militants, as a new
video message warned the
hostage could be killed
within 24 hours.
The Japanese government convened an emergency Cabinet meeting on
Wednesday morning to discuss how to respond to the
hostage crisis and secure
the immediate release of
47-year-old Kenji Goto, a
few days after another video clip showed the apparent
killing of another captive,
42-year-old Haruna Yukawa.
“I feel great outrage at
this extremely vicious act.
We condemn this,” Abe
told Cabinet ministers at the
prime minister’s office. “
“It’s an extremely severe situation but the government has been seeking
cooperation from the Jordanian government for the release of Mr Goto as soon as
possible, and we will continue to do so,” Abe added.
In the video clip posted
online on Tuesday, a man
who claims to be Goto demanded that Jordan swiftly
release Sajida al-Rishawi,
an Iraqi woman on death
row for an attempted suicide bombing in Jordan in
2005, saying he has “24
hours left to live.”
The man, wearing an
orange garment, is holding a picture of a man who
appears to be 1st Lt Muath
al Kasaesbeh, a Jordanian
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets with reporters on
on 28 Jan, 2015, at his office in Tokyo, following a
ministers’ meeting to deal with the hostage crisis.
Kyodo News
military pilot apparently
held hostage by the Islamic State group. The voice in
the video says the pilot has
a shorter time than Goto.
Asked about when
the government believes
the 24-hour period started,
senior government officials
only said Tokyo confirmed
the existence of the video
around 11 pm on Tuesday,
Japan time.
Deputy Chief Cabinet
Secretary Katsunobu Kato
told a Press conference that
the video is likely credible,
as the government has had
“no reason to deny” its authenticity so far.
The captors have
changed their demand from
seeking a ransom of $200
million — the same amount
Abe committed during his
tour of the Middle East as
part of anti-Islamic State
efforts — to free the two
Japanese hostages to the release of al-Rishawi.
Abe has described the
aid as “humanitarian and
nonmilitary” in nature,
which includes support for
countries helping refuges
from Syria and Iraq. He has
vowed never to give in to
terrorism.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters
that he instructed his deputy
Yasuhide Nakayama, who
has been dispatched to head
a Japanese task force in
Amman, to increase efforts
to seek cooperation from
the Jordanian government.
Japanese government
officials were analyzing
the new video, in which the
voice called on Tokyo to
“put all their political pressure on Jordan.”
“A lot depends on what
the Jordanian government
decides,” a Japanese official said.
Many Jordanians have
been calling for al Kasaesbeh to be freed, with speculation about a two-for-one
swap deal that will see the
release of the pilot and
Goto in exchange for the
convicted Iraqi terrorist.
Kyodo News
12
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
world
Spy agency employee was flying
drone that crashed at White House
A recreational drone that landed on the White House
South Lawn is seen in this US Secret Service handout
image taken and released on 26 Jan, 2015. An
individual has come forward to claim responsibility
for flying the small drone that crashed on the South
Lawn of the White House early on Monday morning,
a Secret Service spokeswoman said. The individual
claimed the drone was being used for recreational
purposes.—Reuters
Washington,
28
Jan — An employee of a
US spy agency has confessed to operating a small
drone that crashed on
the grounds of the White
House, the agency said
on Tuesday, the latest in
a series of incidents that
raised questions about the
president’s security.
A spokesman for the
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA)
said that an off-duty employee had told the US Secret Service, which guards
the presidential mansion,
that he had been flying the
four-propellor drone when
it crashed on Monday.
The NGA is a Defence
Department agency whose
principal job is to analyze
photographs taken by spy
planes and satellites.
The spokesman said
that the Secret Service
was investigating and at
this point the man was not
facing disciplinary action.
It did not name the employee or explain why he
was operating the device
near the president’s home.
A Secret Service
spokesman said the device, which set off an alert
and a lockdown at the
White House, was used
for recreational purposes
and did not appear dangerous.
President Barack Obama, who was travelling
abroad, said he understood
the drone was of a type
available at a high street
Mexico not planning to extradite drug kingpin Guzman
Mexico City, 28 Jan
— Mexico is not planning
to extradite to the United
States captured drug lord
Joaquin Guzman because
he will first have to serve
out jail time at home, an
official at the federal attor-
ney general’s office said on
Tuesday.
Mexican
Attorney
General Jesus Murillo said
last week a US request was
imminent for the extradition of Guzman, who is
best known in Mexico as El
Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman
Chapo, or Shorty, because
of his height.
But given the number
of charges pending against
him, Guzman was likely
to spend years in Mexican
prison before he could face
trial in the United States, an
official at the attorney general’s office said, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
“At the moment, the
extradition of El Chapo is
not being contemplated,”
the official said, adding
that only once Guzman
had served his sentences in
Mexico could extradition
be considered.
Guzman was the most
wanted capo in the country
until he was captured by security forces last February
in northwestern Mexico,
where he headed the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most
powerful drug smuggling
outfits in the world.
Bloody clashes between drug gangs and security forces have claimed
about 100,000 lives in
Mexico over the past eight
years. Captured for the first
time in 1993, Guzman escaped his Mexican prison
in 2001 and later made it
into the Forbes list of billionaires thanks to his drug
trafficking exploits.
Guzman is wanted in
the United States on a host
of criminal charges including cocaine smuggling,
money laundering and running a criminal enterprise,
which included murder.
Reuters
chain store and the incident illustrated the need for
more regulation over such
new technologies.
Obama’s wife, Michelle, accompanied the
president on the trip. Their
daughters, Sasha and Malia, and their grandmother,
Michelle Robinson, stayed
behind.
In an interview with
CNN, Obama said he had
asked the Federal Aviation
Administration to examine how the United States
is managing the influx of
flying devices “because
the drone that landed in
the White House you buy
in RadioShack.”
The device known as
a “quad copter” crashed at
the White House in central
Washington in the early
hours of Monday without
endangering anyone.
Asked by CNN if he
was confident that another drone that was armed
could not land at his residence in the future, Obama demurred. “This is a
broader problem,” he said.
“I’ll leave the Secret Service to talk about this particular event.”
The Secret Service
has come under scrutiny after several incidents
involving White House
security. Its director resigned in October, and
an independent review
concluded that it needs to
build a better fence and
hire more officers.
Reuters
Indonesia’s search for AirAsia
crash victims could end in days
Jakarta, 28 Jan — Indonesia’s search for dozens of victims still unaccounted for from last month’s
crash of an AirAsia (AIRA.KL) passenger jet could
end within days if no more bodies are found, a senior
government official said on Wednesday.
The Airbus (AIR.PA) A320 vanished from radar
screens in bad weather over the Java Sea on 28 December, less than half-way into a two-hour flight from
Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-biggest city, to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed.
Indonesia’s civilian National Search and Rescue
Agency said it would scour the sea for bodies for at
least another week.
“Within one week we will evaluate (our search)
depending on the result,” agency chief Fransiskus
Bambang Soelistyo told reporters. “If we can find one
or two more bodies, that means we have the opportunity to prolong the operation.”
The military withdrew from the search on Tuesday, apologizing to the victims’ families for not being
able to do more after a month of work.
Reuters
Blizzard hits Boston and New England, spares New York despite forecasts
Boston / New York,
28 Jan — A powerful blizzard struck Boston and
surrounding New England
on Tuesday, leaving some
4.5 million people grappling with as much as three
feet of snow and coastal
flooding but sparing New
York City residents who
had braced for a significant
blast.
Snow was forecast
to keep falling into early
Wednesday in eastern New
England, possibly setting a
record snowfall in Boston.
At Logan International Airport, 23.3 inches (59.2 cm)
of snow was on the ground
early evening, swept higher
in parts by strong winds.
“There are drifts now
of four, five and six feet
in some places,” Massa-
chusetts Governor Charlie
Baker said. “This is clearly
a very big storm for most of
Massachusetts.”
A statewide travel ban
was scheduled to be lifted
at midnight but Massachusetts residents were urged
to stay off the roads if possible. Boston-area trains,
buses and subways were
set to resume normal service on Wednesday but delays were predicted for the
morning commute.
On the resort island of
Nantucket, more than half
of homes and businesses
were still without power at
early evening, and crews
working to restore electricity were at times getting
stuck on roads throughout
the day, Police Chief William Pittman said.
Lacking
electricity
and heat at home, more
than 100 people flocked to
a shelter at a high school
and others simply warmed
themselves in their running
cars, Pittman said.
“We are going to have
another tough night ahead
of us,” Pittman said, citing
fresh snowfall and blustery conditions as well as
downed trees and power
lines, and icy water over
roadways. “After midnight,
things are going to start improving.”
Icy flooding closed the
island’s downtown waterfront, white-out conditions
forced some roads to be
shut down and ferry and
plane service was canceled,
according to local reports.
Storm-driven coast-
al flooding added to the
state’s woes, as lowlying
towns south of Boston
grappled with rising water.
High tides breached
a seawall in Marshfield,
about 30 miles (50 km)
south of Boston, damaging
11 homes, several of which
were condemned, police
said. Police urged residents
to evacuate.—Reuters
Fourteen-year-old Will Adam snow boards down a
street on Beacon Hill during a large winter blizzard
in Boston, Massachusetts on 27 Jan, 2015.—Reuters
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
13
A D V E R T I S E M E N T & g enera l
Claims Day Notice
MV uni assure VOY No (383N)
Consignees of cargo carried on MV uni assure
VOY No (383N) are hereby notified that the vessel
will be arriving on 29.1.2015 and cargo will be
discharged into the premises of H.P.T where it will
lie at the consignee’s risk and expenses and subject
to the byelaws and conditions of the Port of Yangon.
Damaged cargo will be surveyed daily from 8
am to 11:20 am and 12 noon to 4 pm to Claims Day
now declared as the third day after final discharge of
cargo from the Vessel.
No claims against this vessel will be admitted
after the Claims Day.
Shipping Agency Department
Myanma Port Authority
Agent for: M/s evergreen
shipping line
Phone No: 2301185
Claims Day Notice
Claims Day Notice
Consignees of cargo carried on MV tug: bonia
star 21 & brg: singa besar 1 VOY No (-)
are hereby notified that the vessel will be arriving
on 29.1.2015 and cargo will be discharged into the
premises of apex jetty where it will lie at the
consignee’s risk and expenses and subject to the
byelaws and conditions of the Port of Yangon.
Damaged cargo will be surveyed daily from 8
am to 11:20 am and 12 noon to 4 pm to Claims Day
now declared as the third day after final discharge of
cargo from the Vessel.
No claims against this vessel will be admitted
after the Claims Day.
Shipping Agency Department
Myanma Port Authority
Agent for: M/s singa marine sdn bhd
malaysia
Phone No: 2301191/2301178
Consignees of cargo carried on MV meratus
gorontalo VOY No (091N) are hereby notified
that the vessel will be arriving on 29.1.2015 and cargo
will be discharged into the premises of M.I.P where it
will lie at the consignee’s risk and expenses and subject
to the byelaws and conditions of the Port of Yangon.
Damaged cargo will be surveyed daily from 8
am to 11:20 am and 12 noon to 4 pm to Claims Day
now declared as the third day after final discharge of
cargo from the Vessel.
No claims against this vessel will be admitted
after the Claims Day.
Shipping Agency Department
Myanma Port Authority
Agent for: M/s yang ming lines
Phone No: 2301185
MV tug: bonia star 21 &
brg: singa besar 1 VOY No (-)
MV meratus gorontalo VOY
No (091N)
Food crisis in southern Iraq
worsening, UN agency says
Rome, 28 Jan — A
food crisis is unfolding in
southern Iraq, where thousands of internally displaced refugees who have
moved there from other
parts of the country do not
have enough to eat, a United Nations agency said on
Tuesday.
“Violence continues
to cause ongoing displacement in central, western
and northern areas of Iraq,”
WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Kurdish forces are battling
the Sunni Islamist group
ISIS in part of northern
Iraq. “We are gravely con-
cerned about food security
and the humanitarian situation.”
Internally displaced
people who cannot reach
the Kurdish controlled
north, or who cannot afford
to stay there because of rising prices and overcrowding, are fleeing to the south,
Byrs said.
Many are living in unoccupied public buildings
or mosques that local authorities have provided as
shelter, or with host communities.
Most of the families
who moved to the south
said they spent their meagre savings on transport to
get there, the WFP said.
About 50,000 displaced families, roughly 250,000 people, in the
southern areas of Basrah,
Thi Qar, Qadissiya, Missan, Wassit, Muthanna,
Najaf, Kerbala, and Babel
are currently receiving aid,
the WFP reported.
It is not clear how
many additional families
who have moved to the
south are not receiving aid,
Byrs said.
Overall, more than 2
million Iraqis have been
internally displaced, and
about 1.4 million of them
are receiving WFP aid,
Byrs said.—Reuters
Singapore launches projects to commemorate
“Battle for Singapore” from Japanese
Singapore, 28 Jan —
To commemorate Singapore’s fall to the Japanese
73 years ago and its liberation three years later, the
National Heritage Board
(NHB) of Singapore has
launched the “ Battle for
Singapore” project, which
will organize 52 tours to
nine World War II sites
and structures across the
country.
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sued on Wednesday, NHB
said that the new tours include tours of the Mount
Imbiah Battery in Sentosa and Sarimbun Beach,
where one of the first battles with the Japanese forces took place. All tours are
free of charge and public
must register in advance.
NHB will also launch
an exhibition entitled Case
Files from the Singapore
War Crimes Tribunal to
commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation
of Singapore, which will be
on display at the National
Museum of Singapore from
11 February to 27 March.
In addition, World
War II artefacts including
two machine guns recovered at the Attap Vallery
bunker, archival photographs, court transcripts
and video clips will also be
displayed.—Xinhua
Weather report
BAY INFERENCE: Weather is generally fair in the
North Bay and partly cloudy in the Andaman Sea and
elsewhere in the Bay of Bengal.
FORECAST VALID UNTIL EVENING OF THE
29th January, 2015: Rain are likely to be isolated
in Upper Sagaing Region and Kachin State, weather
will be partly cloudy in Taninthayi Region and generally fair in the remaining Regions and States. Degree of certainty is (60%).
STATE OF THE SEA: Seas will be moderate in
Myanmar waters.
OUTLOOK FOR SUBSEQUENT TWO DAYS:
Likelihood of isolated light rain in the extreme in the
Northern Myanmar areas.
Photo taken on 9 Nov, 2012 shows the gas chamber at the memorial site of the
former Auschwitz concentration camp in Oswiecim, Poland. The celebrations
of the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz concentration camp liberation began in the
Polish southern town of Oswiecim on Tuesday morning. The concentration camp
was founded in 1940 by the Germans mostly for the aim of imprisoning Polish
captives. Since 1942 it became Europe’s one of the biggest places of Jewish
extermination, with more than 1.1 million people killed, also including Poles,
Romanians, Soviet captives and others. The camp was liberated on 27 Jan, 1945
by the Red Army soldiers of the former Soviet Union, the date which eventually
became the Holocaust Victims Memory Day.—Xinhua
AirAsia to cancel fuel surcharges
Beijing, 28 Jan —
AirAsia Group CEO said
due to international oil
price drop, AirAsia will
abolish the fuel surcharge
across all of its airlines in
the group.
AirAsia’s long haul
affiliates, AirAsia X, Thai
AirAsia X and Indonesia
AirAsia X will also stop
collecting fuel costs from
passengers, the company
said in a statement.
AirAsia Group CEO
Tony Fernandez said on
Monday to cancel fuel
costs will further reduce
travel costs, help boost
tourism and create a lot
of jobs. It will boost the
economy and benefit consumers.
Making fly easy is
the continuous pursuit of
AirAsia, he said.
Xinhua
NPA leader nabbed in N Philippines
Manila, 28 Jan — A
top leader of the communist New People’s Army
(NPA) in Bicol region of
the Philippines was nabbed
on Tuesday, the country’s
military officials said on
Wednesday.
The man nabbed is
named Reynaldo Hugo and
is second in command of
NPA in Bicol, said Angelo Guzman, spokesperson
of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP)’ Southern Luzon Command.
Guzman said Hugo
was arrested at around
10:14 am on Tuesday
during a joint operation
launched by the military
and police forces in Cabuyao town, Laguna province.
He was suspected of multiple murder.
Mardjorie
Panesa,
public affairs officer of the
9th Infantry Division, said
Hugo was nabbed at the
residence of a family member in barangay Gulod. She
said no firearm was seized
from Hugo’s possession.
Guzman said the arrest
of Hugo was made possible
by information provided by
unnamed NPA rebels.
“Internal disputes on
the whereabouts of extortion money led some NPAs
to pinpoint Hugo to authorities,” he said.
At least three NPA
leaders were arrested by
government forces in Bicol
region last year.
The 4,000-strong NPA
has been fighting an insurgency in 60 Philippine
provinces since 1969.
Xinhua
14
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
entertainment
From Oscars to Sundance,
Sharma and Revolori
discuss India’s ‘Umrika’
Emma Stone ‘uncomfortable’
with paparazzi attention
New York, 28 Jan —
Actress Emma Stone has
revealed that she finds paparazzi attention “uncomfortable” outside her home.
The 26-year-old actress, who is dating her
“Amazing
Spider-Man”
co-star Andrew Garfield,
said she will never enjoy
seeing people outside her
house snapping photographs of her, reported the
New York Times.
“It’s uncomfortable to
have photographers outside
of your home. That’s never going to feel good, and
I don’t think that’s OK.
Yet there’s also a goal to
live life normally. So, if they
photograph you walking to
the same restaurant every
morning, like you do when
you live in a neighbourhood.
Honestly, I try not to think
about it any longer than when
it’s happening,” she said.
Stone said she feels incredibly “protective” of her
personal life.
“For me, I value privacy so much and I understand
why I need to talk about the
work, the films and all of that
but it’s incredibly hard to reveal stuff about my life, so it
makes me feel pretty boring
and very protective.”
PTI
Taylor Swift
says Twitter, Instagram
accounts were hacked
Los Angeles, 28 Jan — Pop
star Taylor Swift said her Twitter and Instagram accounts were
hacked on Tuesday, but the rogue
posts were quickly removed from
the social media services.
The 25-year-old “Shake It
Off” singer, whose album “1989”
has been atop the charts for the past
three months, has built a following
of young fans through social media
and has the fourth-most popular
Twitter account with 51.4 million
followers.
“My Twitter got hacked but
don’t worry, Twitter is deleting
the hacker tweets and locking my
account until they can figure out
how this happened and get me
new passwords,” said a statement
posted on Swift’s personal Tumblr page. “Never a dull moment,”
the statement added before another
posting said that Swift’s Instagram
account had been hacked as well.
Celebrities are frequent targets
of hackers who have posted per-
sonal and embarrassing information online in previous high-profile
hacks.
Swift’s publicist did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc-owned Instagram did not
immediately respond to requests
for comment on whether Swift’s
accounts had been hacked.
The Grammy winner was back
to tweeting two hours after the
hacking, in which users were asked
to follow two accounts that Twitter
now lists as suspended.
“Cause the hackers gonna
hack, hack, hack, hack, hack ...,”
Swift tweeted, mimicking the lyrics to her hit “Shake It Off.”
The apparent hacking of
Swift’s accounts came as Facebook, the world’s largest social
network, experienced a wide outage on Tuesday. A hacker group
sought to claim responsibility, but
the company said the outage was
its fault.—Reuters
Park City, (Utah) 28 Jan — In the midst of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, actors Suraj Sharma and Tony Revolori found themselves comparing notes
on Hollywood’s awards season, both having made their
breakout in films that stormed into the Oscars race.
Indian actor Sharma, the lead of 2012’s Oscar-nominated “Life of Pi,” and Hispanic American actor Revolori, the star of this year’s quirky Oscar-nominated “The
Grand Budapest Hotel,” joked about etiquette required at
the Oscars as they discussed their role in “Umrika,” which
premiered at Sundance last week.
“Umrika,” the Hindi word for America, follows Ramakant (Sharma), a rural Indian boy whose older brother
Udai mysteriously vanishes after he embarks for a new
life in America.
But soon, detailed letters come from Udai, through
which Ramakant and his sheltered rural community live
and learn vicariously about “Umrika,” a foreign land that
embodies the notion that anyone can make their dreams a
possibility.
“The story for Rama is about finding this identity
which is set apart from the identity that is put upon him,
so it’s overshadowing what is the truth,” Sharma told Reuters. “Umrika” is the only Indian entry at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it is competing in the world
drama competition.
“I was confronted with a lot of cliches growing up
abroad, so I wanted to playfully turn that around and
create a portrait of America as an exotic place through
the eyes of these villagers,” said writer-director Prashant
Nair.
While Sharma had the benefit of having Hindi as
his native language, Revolori learned the Hindi dialect
of Bundeli from scratch for “Umrika,” in which he plays
Ramakant’s best friend Lalu.
“I’m Hispanic and I don’t have a lot of those head
movements. It’s a lot of those things you’ll see in the film
which you won’t even notice, but I had to get it right,” he
said.—Reuters
Actors Tony Revolori (L) and Suraj Sharma pose at the
Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah
on 24 Jan, 2015. —Reuters
Amitabh Bachchan justifies title
of R Balki’s ‘Shamitabh’
London, 28 Jan —
Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan dismissed
suggestion that his name
has been incorporated
in his upcoming movie
‘Shamitabh’ for creating
some kind of sensation
and described the film as
a “never before seen” plot.
Amitabh Bachchan,
who is in London to promote the film along with
co-stars Dhanush and
Akshara Haasan, said, “A
lot of people have been
intrigued by the title and
feel that my name has been
incorporated for some kind
of sensation. That is quite
untrue.” “The title actually
comes out of the script of
the film. It’s a story of two
individuals who have different exceptional qualities
and what happens when
they come together. I give
my voice to the character of
Dhanush…an aspect of the
film which was a first for
me,” explained Big B.
The actor described
the film as a “never before
seen” plot. Writer-director R
Balki’s ‘Shamitabh will hit
the screens around the world
on 6 February,
“Balki has a very intellectual, sensitive mind. He
thinks differently and has
always made stories that
have not been the regular
escapist fare that you see in
Hindi cinema. And I can say
with certain amount of confidence that this is a plot that
has never been seen before
at least in Indian cinema,
even may be true for cinema
worldwide. “It’s been a great
joy to be able to live with
his thought process,” said
the 72-year-old actor, who
has worked with Balki on
two previous critically-acclaimed films — ‘Cheeni
Kum’ and ‘Paa’.—PTI
Thursday, 29 January, 2015
15
general
Author Macdonald’s ‘H is for Hawk’
takes top Costa book prize
London, 28 Jan — British author Helen Macdonald’s searing memoir about
how she coped with the grief
of her father’s sudden death
by training a goshawk won
the 2014 Costa Book of the
Year award on Tuesday.
Macdonald’s book “H
is for Hawk”, which has
received almost universal
critical praise and garnered
the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in
November, won on the first
ballot by the panel of nine
judges, jury president and
novelist Robert Harris said.
Macdonald said she
hadn’t expected to win, and
hadn’t expected the book to
have the cathartic effect that
it did.
“When I finished it and
literally wrote the last sentence a weight fell off me that
I’d been carrying around and
the person that I was writing
about in the book finally was
gone,” she said.
“It felt like a real goodbye to my dad and the person
that I was, so it was cathartic
and I didn’t expect it to
be.”
She attributed the
book’s success in part to
what she said was a long
tradition, particularly in
Britain, of books about
people’s relationship with
nature and animals.
“This bird that people
think is a symbol of wildness and ferocity is in fact
both a murderous creature
but also something that
plays with the kitten and
watches television with
me,” she said.
Macdonald receives
35,000 pounds in prize
money for her book, which
Harris said was a “decisive
winner”.
Harris said Macdonald’s book not only was
a tale of her grief, and the
challenge of training a
bird of prey, but had also
interwoven a biography of
the late T H White, author
of “The Once and Future
King”, who also had tried
to train a goshawk.
“It does something
(29-1-15 07:00 am~ 30-1-15 07:00 am) MST
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Helen MacDonald, nominee in the 2014 Costa Book
Awards and winner of the Costa Biography Award
category, poses with her book ‘H is for hawk’ prior to
the announcement of the overall winner in London
on 27 Jan, 2015.—Reuters
quite unique and actually it
does something that’s quite
relevant to the Costa Prize
which ... spans different
genres of writing, so in a
way it was a natural,” Harris
said.
“Some books win prizes because they demand it
and then the public don’t
quite get it, but this is a book
I think everyone will like.”
Other contenders included Ali Smith’s “How
to be both”, Emma Healey’s
“Elizabeth is Missing”,
Jonathan Edwards’s debut
poetry collection “My Family and Other Superheroes”
and Kate Saunders’s “Five
Children on the Western
Front”.—Reuters
(29-1-2015, Thursday)
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Sisterly advice to help Serena prepare for Keys
Serena Williams of the US reacts after defeating
Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia to win their women’s
singles quarter-final match at the Australian Open
2015 tennis tournament in Melbourne
on 28 Jan, 2015. — Reuters
Melbourne, 28 Jan —
Serena Williams will turn
to her sister for advice for
her all-American semi-final
against Madison Keys, the
teenager with designs on the
throne of US women’s tennis.
An injury-hampered Keys
defeated Venus Williams in
three sets on Wednesday
to continue her fairytale
run at Melbourne Park and
now faces the ultimate test
against top seed Serena.
Williams has previously suffered defeat at
the hands of a US prodigy
at Melbourne Park, beaten
by teenager Sloane Stephens
in the 2013 tournament,
but has never been thrown
off the top of the heap by
year’s end.
Into her first semi-final
at Melbourne Park in five
years after Wednesday’s
6-2, 6-2 rout of Dominika
Cibulkova, Williams will
be on her guard against
Keys, long touted as the future standard-bearer for the
women’s game in America.
“She’s playing great.
I told her I was really
happy that she did well,”
Williams told reporters of
Keys. “She’s in the semis.
It’s good to see another
American, another African
American, in the semi-finals
playing so well. “Regardless, there’s going to be an
American in the finals, so
that is great.
“It’s also great for
me and Venus because we
know that finally there’s
other Americans that are
constantly playing well and
playing better, showing that
they want to be the world’s
greatest. “For sure I’ll ask
(Venus). (I will) also ask
my coach, who has been
steering me these last two
weeks. I’m really excited to
be in the semis.” Williams
has complained of a cold in
recent days at Melbourne
Park and said it was getting
“worse and worse”, but
there was little evidence of
that as she broke her pattern
of slow starts to rout last
year’s finalist Cibulkova in
just over an hour.
Breaking the Slovak
11th seed twice in each set,
Williams gave nothing on
serve and closed out the
match when Cibulkova
clubbed a return past the
baseline.
The American grinned
broadly as she smiled and
waved at the Rod Laver
Arena crowd on a sunny,
breezy day.— Reuters
Dates of 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia decided
Jakarta, 28 Jan —The
Olympic Council of Asia
and the Indonesian Olympic
Committee have agreed to
hold the 2018 Asian Games
from 18 August to 2 September, 2018, in the country, the
Indonesian committee chairman said on Wednesday.
“It was decided dur-
ing our meeting yesterday
(Tuesday),” Rita Subowo,
chairwoman of the Indonesian Olympic Committee,
told Kyodo News.
According to Subowo,
however, the OCA has
requested Indonesia to renovate some venues of the
games, as well as to build
new venues for events such
as swimming and cycling.
“A total of 34 sports are
expected to be featured (in
the games),” Subowo said,
adding that four sports proposed by Indonesia have yet
to be approved by the OCA.
The proposed sports,
expected to improve Indo-
nesia’s medal prospects in
the quadrennial games, are
rock climbing, bowling, paragliding and roller skating.
The OCA, Subowo added, approved the country’s
traditional martial art “pencak
silat,” which will be making
its debut in the next Asian
Games.—Kyodo News
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Thursday, 29 January, 2015
10th Waxing Day of Tabodwe 1376 ME
er powered a header past
Liverpool keeper Simon
Mignolet four minutes into
the extra period to secure a
2-1 aggregate win for the
four-times winners days
after their humiliating FA
Cup exit to third-tier Bradford City.
Both sides had good
chances in normal time
and were grateful to their
keepers — Thibaut Courtois and Mignolet — for
keeping the scores level
in a blood-and-thunder encounter with plenty of controversy.
Chelsea striker Diego Costa was typically in
the thick of the action and
twice appeared to stamp
on Liverpool players, but
should also have been
awarded a penalty when he
was felled by Slovak defender Martin Skrtel in the
first half.
Chelsea will face Tottenham Hotspur or Sheffield United, who play the
second leg of their lastfour clash on Wednes-
Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic (3rd L) scores against Liverpool during their English League Cup semi-final
second leg soccer match at Stamford Bridge in London on 27 Jan, 2015.—Reuters
Nishikori loses quarterfinal rematch
with Australian Open champion
Melbourne, 28 Jan
— Defending Australian Open champion Stan
Wawrinka avenged his
only career loss to Japan’s
Kei Nishikori on Wednesday, when the Swiss No
4 seed advanced to the
semifinals with a 6-3, 6-4,
7-6(6).
Last September, Nishikori beat Wawrinka in
the US Open quarterfinals in five grueling sets,
but had few answers for
Wawrinka’s power and
accuracy in Melbourne,
where the Swiss star fired
20 aces to Nishikori’s six
and remained on course to
defend his title.
The fifth-seeded Nishikori, whose serve had
been very effective through
his first four matches, was
nowhere to be seen in the
first set, while his strokes
were often misplayed in a
one-sided affair. Wawrinka, on the other hand, was
able to give Nishikori a
taste of his own medicine.
The Japanese star, who
normally returns extremely
well and thrives on keeping his opponents uncomfortable behind the baseline with precise strokes,
was himself victimized by
Wawrinka’s ability to dictate the flow of play.
While Nishikori sometimes hesitated to go to the
net, Wawrinka exploited
most of his opportunities
against his speedy
opponent
by
rushing forward
whenever Nishikori was on the
ropes. Nishikori
barely held serve
to go up 2-1 in the
second set, but
was broken easily
in the fifth to fall
behind 3-2 with
his opponent winning four straight
service points to
take a commanding lead. Wawrinka did not face a
single break point
Japan’s Kei Nishikori returns a shot during an Australian Open until he was servquarterfinal against Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland
ing for the second
set, and then overon 28 Jan, 2015, in Melbourne.—Kyodo News
came three break points to
put Nishikori one set away
from elimination.
The third set started
auspiciously for Nishikori, who won the first eight
points to go up 2-0 and
earn his first service break
of the day. But Wawrinka
rallied to break back and
leveled the set 2-2 with
eight straight points. With
Wawrinka serving in the
eighth game, Nishikori began asserting himself with
his returns and shots, only
to miss a pair of golden opportunities that allowed his
opponent to hold his serve
and even the set. Nishikori,
discovered his serve-andvolley game, had found his
rhythm but it came one set
too late. In the tiebreak, he
lost the first four points but
survived four match points
to make it 6-6, but that
proved to be all Nishikori
could muster.
In the semifinals,
Wawrinka will play either world No 1 Novak
Djokovic or hard-serving
eight-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic, who play in the
last quarterfinal.
Kyodo News
day with the London side
leading 1-0, in the final at
Wembley on 1 March.
“This is a new Liverpool team (from earlier
in the season) and a very
difficult opponent. So I’m
even happier because we
beat a very good team over
two legs,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho told Sky
Sports.
This was a very different Chelsea side to the
one that was beaten 4-2 by
Bradford in the FA Cup at
Stamford Bridge on Saturday, with manager Jose
Mourinho making nine
changes.
The first half was
played at full throttle with
both teams looking to seize
the early initiative, but
the visitors had the better chances with Chelsea
keeper Courtois producing
excellent saves to deny Alberto Moreno and Philippe
Coutinho.
While Chelsea struggled to create opportunities, they did have loud appeals for a penalty waved
away when Costa, who
was lucky to be on the
pitch after stamping on
Emre Can’s ankle earlier in
the match, was felled by a
clumsy tackle from Skrtel.
Tempers began to
flare after the break with
Brazilian-born Spain striker Costa involved in another stamping incident, but
as the match wore Chelsea
began to craft the better
openings.
Eden Hazard beat
four men and drove a shot
just wide, and Mignolet
superbly denied Costa
twice with his feet, first
from a deflected shot and
then when the striker was
through on goal.
Ivanovic
ensured
Chelsea would not have to
rely on the away goals rule,
which would only have
come into play after extra time, to progress while
Liverpool’s best chance in
extra time fell to Jordan
Henderson, who headed
wide. For Liverpool boss
Brendan Rodgers, the difference between the teams
was Chelsea keeper Courtois.
“We were better in
every aspect of our game
but we just couldn’t get the
big goals. Sometimes you
have a barrier in your way
and tonight and last week it
was Courtois,” he said.
Reuters
Postecoglou keeps high
key ahead of
South Korea clash
Newcastle, 28 Jan
— Australia’s coach
Ange Postecoglou is optimistic about their Asian
Cup final after beating the
Unite Arab Emirates 2-0
in semifinal on Tuesday.
Postecoglou
said
they will not miss the
chance to win the Asian
Cup title at home.
Having lost 1-0 to Japan after extra-time in the
2011 final, Postecoglou
insists Australia are firmly focused on landing a
maiden continental title
now.
“They are already
in recovery mode and
doing the right things as
they have done all tournament,” Postecoglou said.
Australia have now
scored 12 goals in their
five games, while only
conceding twice. Ten different players have now
scored for Postecoglou’s
side during the campaign.
“I think we have
been very good in the
whole tournament. There
haven’t been too many
Australia’s coach
Ange Postecoglou
periods in any games
where I have felt we’ve
been dominated, so for
the most part we have
been pretty solid,” added
Postecoglou.
“The players have
got real belief now and
they are getting the rewards, so hopefully that
means they keep progressing and challenging
themselves to be better.”
Xinhua
“R/489 Printed and published at the Global New Light of Myanmar Printing Factory at No. 150,
Nga Htat Kyee Pagoda Road, Bahan Township, Yangon, by the Global New Light of Myanmar Daily.”
London,
28
Jan
— Chelsea reached the
League Cup final after
Branislav Ivanovic’s towering extra-time header
secured a 1-0 victory over
Liverpool in a rip-roaring
semi-final second leg at an
electric Stamford Bridge
on Tuesday.
The Serbian defend-
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Ivanovic heads Chelsea into League Cup final